Just a quick update for you today (we're doing a stock take in the visitor centre and it's an all day job). A couple of our keen volunteers, Angela and Pat, have been scouring the reserve this morning for little birds and they've come back with a long list for our sightings board. The first report was that the Dell area and Pallas's Patch (behind the visitor centre) are goldmines for small birds at the moment. Blackcap, mistle thrush, pied flycatcher and redwing have all been sighted here. The second report was of fieldfare, siskin, redstart and black redstart along the Discovery Trail, which starts just outside our visitor centre door. Pink-footed geese have also been sighted in the sky above the reserve and were very easy to spot against the beautiful blue sky. My advice would be to get down here as soon as possible to make the most of this gorgeous day. Who knows when the next one will be!

(Oh yes, and someone tells us they've seen a hawfinch... We're waiting for confirmation)

Rachael Tulloch (Warden Intern, RSPB Fairburn Ings)